Homebrew Batch No. 3, Coopers English Bitter

Here it is, my first taste. I brewed this beer on New Year's Day with Jeff and Dad. It was a Coopers English Bitter kit that Dad gave me for Christmas. Two weeks in the fermenter and two weeks fermenting in the bottle. This beer is a bit early for tasting, but it's not drinking, it's research and development. I popped two sixpacks  and three stragglers in the fridge today. They're gonna condition for two weeks.

I'm gonna let the rest of the batch (2 cases) sit and carbonate for another week. Then they'll go into the fridge for 2 weeks to condition as well. The instructions say this beer will age well, so I will probably sit on a sixpack or two for a few months. 

So first impression. Good color, no real head. Carbonation seems good for the style. English Bitters are not highly carbonated. Slight cidery smell, but it will probably age out of it. Flavor is good. Nice bitterness, good mouthfeel. No real off flavor I can taste.

So far so good.

Happy Beerday...... I mean Happy Birthday.

Happy Beerday to me! So Wednesday, January 25th, was my birthday. I turned 37. I know I'm old. Shut up kid. I'm blogging this tonight because I was in now shape to do this then.

My beautiful wife, Tabatha, asked me where I wanted to go to lunch on my birthday. So as a beer lover, I could think of only one place. Delaney's Taproom in New Haven.

It's beer-vana. Their draught beers list is a full page and the bottled beers... 4 pages.

Delaney's Taproom 

I started with the Sierra Nevada Ruthless Rye IPA. Fantastic beer as we read through the food menu. Nice peppery taste from the rye malt, with a great hoppy finish. Well balanced.

http://www.sierranevada.com/beers/ruthless.html

Beer number 2 was Hop Devil IPA fromVictory Brewing Company in Downingtown, PA.

Another great IPA. I don't know what it is about IPA's, but I friggin love them.

http://victorybeer.com/beers/hopdevil/

And the big finish, of my birthday lunch and my level of sobriety, was a bottle of Squall IPA from Dogfish Head. Holy shit people. It was incredible. They take there 90 Minute IPA (a personal favorite) and bottle condition and naturally ferment it. 

I almost forgot to mention an awesome Stout I tried from Dogfish. Black and Red. It's a stout finished with raspberries and 100 punds of frest mint in every batch. What a great, great beer. Chocolatey and faintly fruity flavor with a mint finish. Great dessert beer. Too bad it's only available in draft.

http://www.dogfish.com/ 

Stouts and Stouts

Stouts. Ah yes, the wonderful world of Stouts. Nothing better in cold weather than a nice dark Stout. Chocolatey, roasty, coffee yummy goodness. I recently picked up two new ones to try.

First was Imperial Stout Trooper by New England Brewing Company in Woodbridge, CT.

New England Brewing Co.

Only one way to describe it. Incredible. Period.

The second I tried last night was Oak Aged Mocha Stout from Peak Organic Brewing in Portland, ME.

Peak Organic Brewing

 Another great beer. This one is brewed with Organic Chocolate and Organic Coffee. You definitely get the mocha flavor. I will definitely buy this again.

Maybe next time, I'll actually share it.

 

                                               

Bottling Day

So here it is, January 15th, 2012. It is MLK's birthday, but more importantly, it's bottling day. As I mentioned in my last post, Jeff, Dad and I brewed two batches of beer on New Year's Day. Today, the beer is ready to bottle. I have 6 gallons of Cooper's English Bitter. Jeff has 2.5 gallons of Mr. Beer's Octoberfest. I have 3 cases if bottles sanitizing in the dishwasher. Jeff has a case or so sanitizing in his as well. Good brewing tip. Check with your local package store about beer bottles. I got them for $1.68 per case. It's a lot cheaper than $12.00 per case from the homebrewing stores. So you have to strip the labels off and clean them, big deal. Well worth the money saved. I'm going to be batch priming my beer and Jeff will using the Cooper's Carb Drops. I was going to as well, but I forgot to order them early enough. But they will be delivered tomorrow. At least I will have them for the next batch we brew. Not sure what's next to brew, but something good I hope.

Update: Bottling is done. I bottle about 2.5 cases and Jeff bottles about a case and a half. I even found a way to label them without having to clean them again. 3/4" round labels on the cap. I can even run them through the printer and customize them. Pics to follow.

 

Happy Brew Year 2012

Happy Brew Year 2012 from Stars & Bars. It was a great start to the New Year. Jeff and I decided that brewing some beer would be a great start. We invited my Dad, Bob, to join us as well. After digging out our gear, we set off to brewing. Jeff brewed a Mr Beer Octoberfest Vienna Lager and I brewed a Cooper's English Bitter. Both are relatively easy kits. More prep work and sanitization then anything else. Oh yeah, drinking beer. Jeff was kind enough to bring an Otter Creek sampler 12 pack. I tried the Black IPA and the Winter Red Ale. The Black IPA is my new favorite..... this week. The Stovepipe Porter was good too. We also toasted the Brew year with Three Philosophers Quad Belgian from Ommegang. The beer is now happily bubbling away in the Fermentation Chamber at a nice 67.6°. The Temp Controller I built is working flawlessly as well as the paint can heater. Check out the pics below.